Santa Ana Police investigate attacks on teen girls

SANTA ANA — A 17-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by two men while walking home from summer school in Santa Ana on Monday, and police were working to determine if the attack was related to an earlier break-in by a man who crawled into bed with a 15-year-old girl and groped her.

The first attack happened about 12:15 a.m. at a home in the 1000 block of North Lincoln Street, said Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. An intruder broke into the bedroom of a 15-year-old girl and groped her, prompting her to shout for help from her mother, who rushed to her aid, Bertagna said.

The suspect, who was described as a man in his 20s or 30s who appeared to be “disheveled and dirty,” ran off, Bertagna said.

The girl told NBC4 she initially thought one of her brothers had crawled into bed with her.

“I was laying down and I felt someone, like, lay down next me on my bed,” she told the station. “And usually it’s sometimes my brothers so I didn’t think anything of it.”

She said she yelled to her mother when the person began groping her.

“I wasn’t really scared, I was more shocked, like I didn’t know what to think of it or what to say,” she said. “It was just — I don’t know.”

She said the man was carrying a backpack and wearing “black Nike running shoes.”

At 11 a.m., police were called to the 1300 block of East McFadden Avenue regarding an attack on a 17-year-old girl, Bertagna said. The girl was walking home from summer school at Century High School when two men, who appeared to be transients, sexually assaulted her, Bertagna said.

The two suspects were described as men in the 20s or 30s, Bertagna said.

Both crimes occurred near railroad tracks, which have drawn transients who camp out on the federal property, so police were looking into whether one of the suspects may have been involved in both attacks, Bertagna said.